Little Missouri Fly Fishing

As I noted, they closed the bunger valve on the 17th so they could do work on the electrical stuff at the base of the dam. As of 5:00am this morning it is still closed. There were a lot of workers there yesterday but I assume as soon as they are finished, they will open the valve again?? 

No water flowing in the river lets you see how nasty the bottom of the river really is from all the crap coming thru the bunger valve. The fishing has been REALLY bad these past two days ( a couple of fish each day in a 2 hour span). Gonna try them again today and see if they have adjusted to the current conditions of no flow.

Nothing new on the work project for the trash racks. Last word from Janet at Sawaha was for them to start work the end of this month. If so, I would think they would start pulling the lake down to the 533' foot level really soon?🤔🤔. Who knows what the Corp will do!! 

‼️ I fished this morning for 2 hours and never got a bite!!🤔😱😬☹️.

Thanks for the reports, Mike.  Judy and I hope to get to Lil'Mo later this fall if the CoE doesn't ruin everything.  She is needing her "fly rod fix" as she had her shoulder rebuilt about 4 weeks ago and will be more than ready to try it out by late October.
SEARK Jim

You can read my report on 2 September and it will be the same for today!!  Nothing changed here in the past two weeks. It's a month from today when trout season starts on the Little Mo'. I have no idea what this year might bring?  I assume they are still planning on working on the dam the end of this month but they have not started pulling the lake down other than the continuous 17% bunger valve release. Water and river bottom is still very dirty and has a really foul odor, I assume from the lake turning over. I'm still catching a fish here and there but they have really been depleted since the last May stocking. If I find out anything new I'll post it ASAP, if not I'll post again in a couple of weeks.

‼️ Alert yesterday, 9/17, as I was fishing they closed the bunger valve!  I had caught a couple of fish but as the water dropped I never got another bite. That seems to happen often??  I was advised they were working on the electrical stuff at the switch yard and we're getting wet from the spray off the bunger. As of 5:00 am this morning, 9/18, it is still closed thus no flow on the Lil' Mo'. Guess they will be working on it again today.

Just a quick update of nothing to report.     They are still running the 17% bunger valve, that's 60 days straight!!  The water is really silty and stinky!!  I think the lake has turned over as it usually does this time of year. Water temperature is still at 54 degrees, right off the bottom of the lake. There are still a few trout to be caught but it's tough and the bite is sporadic.

I've heard nothing new on the dam repairs since I last posted. I really expect them to start pulling the lake down for the repairs soon after the Labor Day weekend is over. It will take about 20 days to pull the lake down 10 feet more unless they go crazy and open the bunger wide open!!😱😱. Hope not, it really erodes the river banks. Slow and easy is better. I'll try and post as soon as they start the pull down because the fishing will be over for a while.

The Corp has been running one bunger valve at 7% for 46 days now. Makes the river kinda like an early spring Idaho river, except for the silt!!  Sometimes the water looks clearer but the river bottom is so dirty it's hard to tell. I'm still catching about the same number of fish that I do any other year at this time. Water temp over the entire 6 miles of river from the dam to low water bridge is about 54 degrees.

Janet Fant posted the following on the Facebook site, friend's of lake Greason, yesterday:
            * Money has been allocated to repair the dam
           
            * Project to begin near the end of September 2024

            * Projected to draw down to approximately 534', which is normal for that that time of year. 

            * plan is to work during the draw down, continuing until they get to the 534, then continue more as they bring levels back up(to try to stay ahead of the rise).

That's more than I've heard so thank you Janet. Don't have a clue what this will do to this years trout season.  Will they still stock? When will they start the draw down? Lots of unanswered questions. I've tried to contact Ryan Gary, the trout biologist for this river, but he is not answering my texts or calls!  Guess I pissed him off some time or another??  The lake is currently at about 544.  To pull it down 10 foot will take about 20 days, so they may start really soon.

Will post again as I know more and things start to happen.



   

Any updates.

Nothing really new on the Lil' Mo' 🥱🥱. They are still running a 7% bunger valve, which I guess is minimum flow?🤔. The water temperature is still 54 degrees and there are still trout in the river. The silt content varies from day to day?  Seems like sone days it's a little clearer than others. I have given up on running the poachers off. It seems ever day I'm telling someone to "READ THE SIGN"!!  That's just the few hours I'm there in the mornings, who knows what goes on after 9:00am. I know!!  I did get a report from someone who caught 25 one afternoon this past week. He advised the bite picked up about 11:30, guess I'll never know, nap time you know!! 

It's been an enjoyable past month fishing the flow on the river. I feel I'm catching just about as many as I was last year this time. It's more fishing and not just catching!! Just have to love it!! 

After the early morning bite go away, is the any bream or bass action.??


I know there are a lot of bream and bass in the river because I catch them while trout fishing. Don't actually fish for them so can't say how the "action" would be if I did. 🤔🤔🤔.

As of 5:00 am on 20 July they are still doing a little minimum flow, that's 7% open on one bunger valve. The water temperature at Riverside is 54 degrees 🥶🥶. For me, wet wading is out of the question!!  There is a lot of "bottom of the lake" silt in the river because the bunger valve pulls right off the bottom of the lake.

I went to River Ridge and Hinds Bluff yesterday just to check them out. The water temperature at both was 55 degrees. Old factory site was at 57 degreese, it's great to see the water temps holding this far down river with this minimal flow. Too bad there are no fish left down there to enjoy it!!  I fished about 15 minutes at each place and never got a bite!!  Don't waste your time down there. The water clarity is a little better as you go down river. The silt tends to fall out of the water as it flows down river.

There are still fish at Riverside, just hard to catch!!  They definitely don't like the silt. You must get your depth and your drift correct just to get a bite. It's never great fishing this time of year on the Lil' Mo', no stocking going on and the leftover fish have been poached, mishandled and killed, or just washed away down river. The Game and Fish could stock if they knew the Corp was gonna continue the minimum flow🤔🤔. Lots of luck!!!

The minimum flow has been going for 3 weeks now and it hasn't affected the lake level at all. If they were doing this same flow through a generator it would be perfect. Continual cold water with no silt and great trout river fishing.

Got out this morning at 6:30 am and fished until 9:30am. The water temp was 58 and with no bunger open for a couple of days and the seepage from the dam, the water  clarity had cleaned up nicely. I caught fish at the wall hole and the meat hole.

When I got up from my nap at 4:00pm they had started the minimum flow again (7% out of one bunger valve) and the silt is back in the river. I have deduced that the fish just don't like to bite with all that "bottom of the lake" floating around in the river 🤔😱. Not much can be done about that.